VOL. S2 



Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections 



VOL. V Quarterly issue Part i 



THE CRETACEOUS FISHES OF CEARA, BRAZIL 



By DAVID STARR JORDAN and JOHN CASPER BRANNER 



(With Eight Plates) 



The first part of this paper deals with the general geology and 

 geography of the region from which the Cretaceous fishes of Ceara 

 come, while the second part is a systematic description of the fishes 

 themselves. The collection is especially important because it con- 

 tains all of the species hitherto described from Ceara, besides three 

 new genera and four new species. The large number of duplicates 

 has made it possible to restore several of these fishes almost entirely. 



The collection belongs to Senhor Francisco Dias da Rocha, pro- 

 prietor of the Museo Rocha in Ceara, to whom it has been returned, 

 but Sr. Rocha has generously presented several important counter- 

 parts and duplicates to the junior author. These counterparts and 

 duplicates are deposited with the geological collections of Stanford 

 University, in California, and of these several specimens have been 

 given to the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington. 



A. Notes on the Geology of the Cretaceous Fish-bearing 

 Beds oe Ceara, Brazil 



The collection of fossil fishes described in this paper was made by 

 Sr. Francisco L^ias da Rocha, of the Rocha ^Museum, at Fortaleza, 

 Ceara, Brazil. They come from several places about the base of the 

 Serra do Araripe, in the extreme southern end of the State of Ceara, 

 but the precise localities are not given. The region is one that has 

 been so rarely visited by scientific men that but little is known of the 

 details of its geology. By far the most extensive and most valuable 

 notes on the geology of Ceara are those made by Banlo de Capa- 



I 



